Presentation short abstract

Cesspools pose a serious public health and environmental risk. While the management of these spaces is recognized within governance frameworks, I argue that these harms are often portrayed as easily solvable, downplaying the severity of the harms in the Ontario industrial livestock sector.

Presentation long abstract

Livestock production across Canada is increasingly industrialized, a trajectory characterized by fewer and much larger operations. One of the central managerial challenges associated with industrial livestock operations relates to the enormous volumes of feces and urine produced by large and dense animal populations, which require continual supplies of freshwater and chemical disinfectants to decontaminate enclosures. The ensuing slurry generated from this combination of biowastes, water, and chemicals cannot be immediately spread across agricultural landscapes and is instead stored in large cesspools and processed before application to fields. There is a significant and underappreciated burden associated with the storage and processing of these animal biowastes, including noxious fumes (which carry a powerful stench), heightened respiratory illnesses for neighbouring communities, greenhouse gas emissions, and water pollution risks. This paper examines how this multidimensional burden is governed in Ontario, reviewing key policies that shape cesspool management and how environmental and public health risks are expressed through these governance frameworks. Ultimately, I argue that although the provincial government recognizes that cesspools pose significant environmental and health risks, which are often presented in narrow terms that suggest they can be resolved relatively easily, downplaying the scale and severity of the socio-ecological harms they produce.